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Hymns Modern (2014-16)

35 hymns with service music for SATB choir (a cappella or with organ ad lib.)

Text: Various
Difficulty: 2/4-3/4

Dedicated with love to Nick, my husband: who saw me writing hymns and said, "Keep going."

Hymns Modern is a short hymnal comprised of entirely new settings of public domain hymn texts. Although these hymns are generally too difficult for a cappella performance, every piece has been written in strict four-part voicing with clear and effective voice leading, and could be easily performed in unison with organ accompaniment. A full set of Anglican service music, including a short mass setting, are included in this book. Sections of the service where plainchant is commonly used have been freely harmonized, retaining the plainchant in the melody.

This book is best taken as a collection of individual works—the hymns and service music are highly idiosyncratic, always following unexpected turns of harmony and rhythm. My hymnal owes a great deal to Vincent Persichetti (1915-1987), whose Hymns and Responses for the Church Year gave me the initial idea of composing a complete hymnal. This work reassured me that a ‘serious’ composer could (and should) bother themselves with a commonplace, practical book of music.

Download a sample hymn, with the full table of contents & index of texts.

Table of Contents

Time of Day

1. Holy, holy, holy! (Morning)
2. Summer suns are glowing (Midday)
3. Abide with me (Evening)

Christian Year

4. Watchman, tell us of the night (Advent)
5. Lo, God, our God, has come (Christmas)
6. Ring out the old, ring in the new (New Year’s Day)
7. As with gladness men of old (Epiphany)
8. Lord! Who throughout these forty days (Lent)
9. Ride on, ride on in majesty! (Palm Sunday)
10. Go to dark Gethsemane (Holy Week)
11. O sons and daughters, let us sing! (Easter)
12. O Throned, O Crowned (Rogation Days)
13. Hail the day that sees Him rise (Feast of the Ascension)
14. Come, thou Holy Spirit, come! (Pentecost)
15. Three in One, and One in Three (Trinity Sunday)
16. The chosen three, on mountain height (Feast of the Transfiguration) 

Sacraments and Other Rites

17. Draw nigh and take the body (Eucharist)
18. All who believe and are baptized (Baptism)
19. Our Lord and God, O bless this day (Confirmation)
20. O Love divine and golden (Marriage)
21. Death cannot make our souls afraid (Funeral)

Church and People

22. Ye Christian heralds, go, proclaim (Mission)
23. Take my life, and let it be (Ordination)
24. God Himself is present (Anniversary of a Parish)

General Hymns

25. What secret hand, at morning light (Trust)
26. With earnest longings of the mind (Patience)
27. O God of Love, O King of Peace (Peace)
28. God is our refuge and our strength (Times of Trouble)
29. Eternal light! Eternal light! (Hope)
30. Weary of earth, and laden with my sin (Penitence)
31. When in the day of deep distress (Healing)
32. Now thank we all our God (Thanksgiving)
33. My God, my Father, blissful name! (God the Father)
34. Jesus, the very thought of Thee (Jesus Christ)
35. Come down, O Love divine (Holy Spirit)

Service Music

36. Responses to the Commandments
37. Kyrie Eleison
38. Gloria
39. Gospel Acclamation
40. Gospel Responses
41. Nicene Creed
42. Sursum Corda
43. Sanctus
44. The Lord’s Prayer
45. Agnus Dei
46. Doxology
47. Blessing
48. Amens
49. Threefold Amens
50. Sevenfold Amens